Monday in Vermont on Lake Champlain by Dunder Rock
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Jacksonville, FL Feb 18, 2004
Well we are back in Jacksonville after a nice flight today. We
went from 10F with a white landscape at home to about 60F with green
grass
and new leaves on the bushes. It is to get to near freezing
tonight
and above 70 tomorrow.
Monday in Vermont on Lake Champlain by Dunder Rock
Thursday in Jacksonville where the flowers are blooming.
Other than a layer of dust on the deck, the boat is as we left it in December. The solar panel kept the batteries charged and the engine started right off. A quick wash down took care of the dust. Tomorrow morning we put the sails back up and in the afternoon pickup a car for a week.
I am now writing this note in cabin on our new laptop computer while
Lynnea is watching West Wing on the TV. We have a cell phone
connection
to the internet and with unlimited minutes after 9 PM, our e-mails will
now be sent at night.
E-Mail from the boat via the cell phone.
The plan is to spend another week here and then start south toward the Keys. I would like to take the Okeechobee passage across southern Florida and then south to Key West. The problem is a 48 ft railway bridge and our mast is 54 ft. There is a marina which will tilt your boat to get under the bridge. I calculated we would need a tilt of 35 degrees which puts the rail in the water so we need to research this some more.
Leonard
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Jacksonville, FL 2/23/2004
This is just a short note to test out sending email while sitting in a bakery cafe. This is the first time I have gotten the new notebook to connect up via its internal wireless hardware. The marina also has a wireless service but it hasn't worked for me. This morning we decided to have breakfast at this nearby bakery which offers free wireless - you have to pay for the food - and the connection worked flawlessly.
Short update: We have a car for a week and have been hitting
the
shopping centers for miscellaneous items we needed. Friday, we
drove
to Jacksonville Beach and walked the beach at Guana River State
Park.
Saturday evening the marina had their barbecue for the people staying
at
the marina and we met our neighbors some of whom are long time live
aboard
and cruisers. Yesterday we spent the afternoon at a cotton
plantation established in 1562 that is now a state park. We also
went Little Talbot State Park for a long walk on the beach and a
hike back on a trail that went through the dunes and woods with many
huge live oak and pine trees.
One of many Star Fish on the beach at Guana River State Park
Walking on Guana River State Park beach
We think this is a pine cone "flower"
This morning is low 60's and sunny with rain showers forecast for this evening and thru Wednesday. We have most of the charts and one guide book - having trouble finding a copy of the Southern Waterway Guide that we also want - and are working on where we go next. Our departure date now appears to be this weekend traveling south toward the Keys. I think it will take about two weeks to get to Key West.
Yesterday our 25 year old water hose split so it must be replaced. Other than that we can spend our day doing whatever we want.
Leonard
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Jacksonville, FL 2/28/2004
Our plan is to depart our Ortega River berth in the morning with the tide and current in our favor. Since Tuesday the weather has been less than ideal with dark skies (so much for the sunshine state!) spitting either showers or heavy mist most of the time. We chose to delay leaving by a day when the weather forecast the other morning had predictions of a low in the 30's again, with a stiff wind still blowing out of the north. I guess all the snow in the Carolinas has caused the winds to transport cooler weather than was originally predicted.
We spent these less than ideal days trying to finish up some of the projects we've put off for a rainy day. We fitted the 'fridge with a thermal lining of a R19 rating to see if that would solve the drain on the batteries. Given the curvaceous lines of the box we resorted to using a mylar/felt material that would more or less mold into the right shape. We lined the felt side with heavy aluminum foil and duct tape and the 'fridge now resembles a padded cage so I'll have to be careful not to fall in when attempting to reach whatever it is that I need at the bottom! Since we are still on shore power it remains to be seen if we've solved our original problem. It does seem to run less, but it also isn't as cold as it was before.
Next we tackled the impeller for the water pump on the engine. The last time we tried this was when we were anchored by the graveyard in South Carolina and Leonard thought the engine was not putting out as much cooling water as it had been. We spent the best part of that afternoon being unsuccessful and ultimately realizing there wasn't enough space to get the impeller with the tools we had.
Knowing that impellers do need to be replaced if you want to keep a happy engine, we wanted to tackle the job where we could get help if we needed it. This time we managed to pass "Impeller 101" with some skinned thumbs, a little "blue air", the best part of an afternoon and an old impeller that was probably just fine, now in shreds. Don't know why Yanmar designed it like they did, but there is just not quite enough room to maneuver fingers and tools in the allotted space. We had picked up a needle nose pliers with a hook at the end which allowed Leonard to tug at the blades of the impeller while I turned the crankshaft on the engine with a wrench. We did have a replacement on board and after liberally coating it with grease got the thing back together without losing any of the bolts in the bilge.
We did notice that the one we removed was a Johnson not a Yanmar impeller. We found out the reason for the switch when we finally located a Yanmar replacement - it is obscenely expensive for a piece of rubber. There hasn't been a large enough demand for an after market product. It also explained the difficulty we had in removing the old one - it was fractionally larger and with more blades. Ah yes, boats are a hole in the water into which we pour money.
We had a diver scrub the bottom of the boat this week. He also checked the zinc and said the prop was fine, so what ever we hit that caused the vibrations we must have dislodged when we poked with the boat hook. This was welcome news although we weren't worried once the vibrations stopped.
We also managed to take some interesting walks around the area between the showers and mists. There are some very nice neighborhoods along the water. Some of the landscaping is really nice and we enjoyed looking at the azaleas that are just starting to bloom along with some of the flowering trees. One of them looks like a gardenia to me, but I'm not sure. Unfortunately the day we saw the nicest ones we didn't have the camera since it was so gray. On that walk we also discovered a great pastry shop that had wonderful pecan pie bars.
We spent most of yesterday wrapped up in the fleece blanket entering way points on the GPS. We now have the charts and all the guides we hoped to have and are looking at which route to take. We have way points plotted to take us down the east coast to the Keys. Looks like we will have to take the Hawks or outside channel given our draft. They recommend less than 5 feet (one suggested 4 1/2') for the inside channel that would have more anchorages and we figure at 4'8" that is just a bit tight for us. We don't need to spend money repairing the sea grass or coral should we drift out of the 5 foot spots - there are fines down here for such things.
Along with the 48' bridge on the Okeechobee we noticed another 54' bridge. Our mast is 54' and the antennas hit on the bridge at Cape May which was 56' when we went under it. Damaging the mast is another way of ruining a trip and pouring more money in that hole in the water. So we aren't leaning toward that route. We may do more outside jumps when we get further south if the weather is decent since there seems to be a bridge about every 2 miles, most of which have their own schedule and not necessarily in sync with anything.
Today we got the boat ready to go - the dingy is pumped back up and on deck, the systems have been checked out and things cleaned up and put away below decks. The provisioning has been done and the laundry washed and the cabin cleaned so it looks like we'll make our start in the morning.
We'll keep you posted.
Lynnea
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St Augustine, FL 3/1/2004
We left Jacksonville Sunday morning in much nicer weather than the
previous
4 days. It was warm and sunny. We had a somewhat slow start with
delays on the first 3 bridges. The Ortega River Bridge just off
the
marina a 5 minute delay because of some maintenance work. The
Railway
bridge in downtown Jacksonville closed as we approached and we had to
wait
for a train to go by. The Main Street bridge informed me that
because
of construction they needed a hour notice to open. Note: this was
Sunday and I couldn't see any construction work going on.
Fortunately,
another boat had already requested an opening and we only had a 1/2
hour
wait.
Underway heading toward downtown
Jacksonville
The railroad bridge finally opening
Even with the bridge delays, we had a favorable current out the St.
Johns River and south on the ICW. The bridge tender at the last
bridge
we needed to open delayed its 2 PM opening 5 minutes just for us.
Note: Many of the bridges are on a fixed schedule and if you are not
there
at the scheduled time, you wait.
Pine Island marsh at sunset
Sunset from the Pine Island anchorage
We spent the night anchored of the water way by "Pine Island" about
11 miles north of St. Augustine. This morning we went the rest of
the way to St. Augustine and stopped about noon at the Municipal
Marine.
We spent the afternoon wandering around St. Augustine. The town
is
full of tourists riding Harley Davidson motorcycles. There
apparently
ia a Harley Rally and the town even has a sign up saying "Welcome
Bikers".
This is the grey haired bikers with all the goodies on their
bikes.
We hiked out to the lighthouse and climbed all the way to the top along
with the motorcycle tourists. The lighthouse is 165 ft high,
219streps, and
the
climb is hard work for us old timers. The view was worth it.
The St Augustine Lighthouse
Looking down at some of the 219 steps
St Augustine from the lighthouse. The City Marina is just visible
behind the trees.
We walked to a park east of the lighthouse to look at Salt Run
anchorage. It looked like many of the boats were
permentantly moored and there was not much room for transient boats.
However, it would be a well protected, no currents anachorage that we
will keep in mind for the trip north.
Salt Run Anchorage as seen from the lighthouse
Walking back from the lighthouse, we saw a guy riding his bicycle
with
a Pit Bull sitting in the handle bar basket. A rather strange
sight
and I didn't get a picture.
Tonight as we were eating supper, several herons flew in and landed on the adjacent boats and docks. Lynnea identified them as "Black Crown Night Herons". I went to take a picture of one but it flew away. There are also some "Little Blue Herons" wading in the shallows where the tide is out.
Our plan is to get to the Daytona Beach area tomorrow and continue on heading south from there.
Leonard
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Daytona, FL 3/4/2004
The last note was from St. Augustine on Monday Night. It is
now
Thursday night and we are at anchor behind some islands just south of
Palm
Bay in one of the few anchorages the guide books recommend.
Tuesday
night was spent at the Halifax River Yacht Club in Daytona where there
were even more motorcycles gathered as part of Daytona's Bike
Week.
Last night we anchored off Titusville stopping early when Titusville
bridge
closed from 3:15 to 4:30 PM. We had a very quiet night with only
an occasional passing motorcycle.
Leaving Daytona and the Halifax River bridges
The route from St Augustine was a long land cut between Matanzas and Halifax rivers. Before leaving the Matanzas river, we tried taking pictures of the birds on the shore. The ones of the Snowy Egret and Osprey flying turned out the best. The ones of the Eagles to blurry to use. Hopefully we will see more eagles as we travel.
A Snowy Egret standing on a piling
Osprey flying carrying a stick for its nest.
As we have been traveling, we have been seeing what appear to be
abandoned or, at least poorly moored, boats. Some have anchored
out which are now aground. Others have been a docks and also
aground. While some of these were old wrecks, others were
expensive looking boats that are not being cared for.
Example of a nice boat not being cared for.
We have been having warm days with southerly winds developing in the
afternoon and dying away after dark. Tonight the wind doesn't
seem
to be dropping and is still blowing at about 15 knots. We decided
we would sleep better with the 2nd anchor out to hold the boat steady
into
the wind. The good thing is with 15 knots of wind, the wind
generator
will keep the batteries charged overnight. We had launched the
dingy and went exploreing the island we had anchored behind. It
was much deeper closer to shore than I had thought and we could have
anchored must closer in - something to keep in mind for the trip back.
Looking at the next island from the one we had anchored behind.
Note the whitecaps.
So far this trip we have been mostly motoring as the winds have been light or from directly ahead. Yesterday we were able to do some saiing using the jib which we can set and take in quickly. We have yet to raise the main which is more work to set and can be tricky to get down and still stay in the narrow channels.
Today we had several groups 'Least Terns' flying just behind the boat catching food that was stirred up by our prop. They would ride the wind currents about a foot behind bimini then dive straight into the water. We took several pictures and I have attached one to this note. I even shut down the wind generator to avoid any damage they might cause. We have tried getting picture of the dolphins we are seeing but by the time we get the camera pointed all we see is a swirl in the water.
As for the weather for those of you in the north, it is now warm with the days in the 80's and the nights in the low 60's. The cabin is now 74 and I am sitting here in a tee shirt while typing this note. The next cold front isn't expected until Sunday and then the highs are forecast to be in the 60 to 70's. The next two days the highs are to be in the mid 80's.
I think I will quit for now. Our plans are to continue south as weather ermits.
Leonard
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Fort Pierce 3/6/2004
Yesterday morning we carefully worked our way back into the ICW channel after getting both anchors up and stowed. The wind blew out of the south at 15 to 20 knots making it a long, slow, tiring day as we were headed almost directly into the wind. The Indian River is fairly wide, but also very shallow outside of the dredged channel. There is also a good fetch that makes for wet going and then there are always "those boats" that either charge at us or from behind who have no concept of what being " responsible for your own wake" means, that leave us pitching and rolling as they go.
As we needed to get more diesel we stopped off at Vero Beach.
The town doesn't allow any anchoring (Leonard thought about dropping a
hook and then putting a fishing line overoard to test their limits, but
since we have neither fishing liscense nor tackle it was a moot
point). The town does have a nice harbor with inexpensive
moorings where they expect boats to raft together as they fill, but
since it was still early in the day we opted to keep heading toward
Fort Pierce.
We saw more huge, expensive houses on the river than we had ever
dreamed existed. Some of them looked like we could have our
extended family on both sides living with us and probably wouldn't see
each other for days. They all have beautiful, park-like
landscaped grounds and docks into the river with boats on them.
Some of the places looked like they might have a 3 hole golf course too.
We reached Fort Pierce about 4 and managed to get the last available
spot at the city marina for the night. After rinsing the layers
of salt off the boat and us we checked out the Friday night bash the
town was hosting on the waterfront. It appeared to be something
like the "choo choo fest" we have in Burlington every summer. We
then walked through the downtown which has been restored in recent
years.
This morning we checked out the farmer's market between washing and
drying the laundry. The local humane society had an adoption show
at the market today too. There was an uglyist dog contest - lots
of dogs and people everywhere - and then they had a parade of adoptable
dogs. The market had fresh vegetables, fruits and some
beautiful orchids along with baked goods and some interesting crafts.
This afternoon we walked over to a juried art show which was being
held in conjunction with a 50 year retropective show of a local artist
named Backus. He was a realist painter who did some really nice
local scenes. We enjoyed both very much. There was a sidewalk
chalk art show in progress too along the waterfront. People
watching was interesting and it was worth spending an extra day
here to take in some of the local color.
Sidewalk chalk art.
We watched a little blue heron and a white heron search for food
along the waterfront a well as some fiddler crabs staking out their
turf on the shore with the tide out. We have had live
entertainment both nights too from the tiki bar restrauant at the
marina. He sounds pretty good down here at the boat.
The tiki bar is the in place to go in town - lots of people and long
lines, so we'll do our own cooking rather than stand in line.
A Little Blue Heron fishing
A fiddler crab by his hole. The hole is about 1" in diameter.
Today is the first really warm day we've had this trip. It
felt like it was in the 90's in the sun, and humid. The wind has
shifted to the west a bit and dropped back. Cooler weather
is forcast for the next few days which is fine with us as it's 86 in
the cabin now, and after 7. We will head south again in the
morning, we had thought about leaving today, but the forcast last night
was for more strong south winds today. Besides it was an
enjoyable day.
We checked out the boats our dock this afternoon. Seems like
we are the smallest boat here. I guess that's fine because bigger
means an exponential amount of work come spring doing the hull and
bottom. Besides we have trouble pushing or pulling Antares when
the wind or current is up. I can't imagine any more bulk!
Antares at Ft Pierce City Marina.
Time to go clean up and have a snack.
Lynnea